bottle digging Hermanus Cure Bottle/nasa

ANOTHER "GREAT BOTTLE DIGGING STORY" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

In 1973 Bill Agee's book entitled “Collecting All Cures” became a reality to the world of the antique bottle collectors. Being an avid collector and always seeking new information about old bottles, I immediately purchased a copy. “Collecting All Cures” went nicely with Mr. Agee's first effort “Collecting The Cures”, published in 1969. Paging through the book, looking at the bottles pictured, and the descriptions, my eyes came to rest on page 36. No, 120, “Hermanus Germany's Infallible Dyspepsia Cure”. What intrigued me most about this bottle was not the fact that it had an embossed standing soldier on one panel, (picture cures are rare and desirable), but the fact that it was prepared and sold by the L&N Adler Med. Co., Reading PA.

The city of Reading is a short 30 minute drive from my house and my collection contained several good bottles from Reading, but I had never seen or heard of this Hermanus Cure. Agee's comment in his book explained why. “At this writing it is as rare as the Liberty Bell, there's just one known”. Well, that may be so now, but they certainly made more than one, and in time I felt sure I would find another, at a flea market, farm sale, or a digger would call and have one. I wasn't worried.

It's now 1975, two years have gone by and many good bottles, Reading and otherwise, have come and gone but still no Hermanus. What's more confusing is that everybody I spoke to about bottles, and they were many, no one had ever seen one, dug pieces of one, or know anyone who had heard of or seen one. However, I did discover who had sent Bill Agee the information on the one he used as reference in his book, it was badly damaged, but was not for sale, and the owners would not say how or where they acquired it. They thought it was surely a one-of-a-kind bottle, I still didn't think so.

There's a small outdoor flea market held every Monday morning in a village near me. One Monday in late June while “working” the field, I met a fellow who from time to time I went digging with, but who I hadn't seen in awhile. Enter George..

George is one of those people who you always hear about when bottle people gather and talk, but somehow you never ever see. He never goes to shows, subscribes to no magazines and knows nothing about bottle clubs. But George loved to dig, he was more at home digging in a dump, than in his own living room. His family still came first in his life but bottle digging ran a very close second. So after a brief exchange of “how have you beens”, it was no surprise when George immediately went into what I was sure was to be a lengthy, in-depth story of his most recent digs.

George began by telling me about one of his solo all day digs along the old Schuykill River Canal in Reading. He said he wasn't having to much luck, a few Hutchinson sodas turned up at the water's edge, a number of broken pieces and 1920s debris was dug further up the river. Then, about five minutes into the conversation, he says to me “Jim, have you every heard of an amber `cure' bottle from Reading”... Momentarily stunned, my first reaction was of surprise, then caution. George owned no bottle books, how would he know about this bottle, unless. “Hum, what does it look like?” I asked cautiously, hoping that I already know the answer. “Well I only found pieces of them but there are a lot of these bottles there, all broken except for the small ones.” “Small ones George?” I said. (Agee's book made no mention of small ones). "Yea, they must have been samples, I got several whole ones, they say Germany's Dyspepsia Cure or something like that.” The larger ones have a kind of soldier embossed on them and other pieces have the words Reading PA. It was getting late when I found them higher up on the river bank, some pieces were sticking up out of the ground. I dug for awhile but then had to leave, I bet there's more of them there, if you want to go back tomorrow and dig we might find a "whole one.” In a rapid display of the English language I explained my knowledge of the Hermanus Cure, and that yes I definitely wanted to go tomorrow and dig!

It was still early in the morning when we parked the car under a railroad bridge, and started working our way North along the river bank. At this point the old canal's left bank had been completely washed away with the passing of time and only the right remained. Even that was not visible because half the width of the canal itself had been filled in, creating a slanting bank about 25 feet high, which in time had completely grown in with small trees, and bushes. It was here about half way up on this bank that George had been digging when he found the cures.

“Here's the spot,” George exclaimed, “I didn't have time to go too deep.” I could see that, he had really only started, less than a foot or so of dirt was removed. But even now here and there spread among the dirt were pieces of Reading's most elusive bottle, the Hermanus Cure. I examined the pieces carefully, the bottles were fairly large in size, I estimated them to be similar in size and shape to the Electric Bitters.The broken pieces weren't large, a quarter panel here, a neck there. It looked like he had dug enough pieces of broken glass to assemble as many as a dozen bottles. And there was no question as to what bottle the pieces represented.

“Did you come to look or to dig” George hollered. He was a few feet further to my left and had already removed a good size pile of dirt. The dirt moving part went easy, it was soft, and surprisingly free of other debris, only an occasional brick, would surface. But it was the tree roots that held up progress. They were soft, pliable and hard to cut through. George complained that he didn't know “rubber” trees grew in this country. For an hour or more we kept digging inward and downward on the river bank, and all the while the only thing we found were red bricks, the small sample bottles (which unknowing to the cure collectors were becoming more common all the time) and pieces, pieces and more pieces of the larger, and still elusive cure bottle. During a break in the digging, sitting on dirt piles overlooking the river it seemed that my search for the Hermanus cure was over. Oh they were here alright, but except for the small unimpressive sample bottles, all were broken. It was late afternoon now and we were still at it. We had dug till both holes we started had become one. The digging was easier now, since we had removed all the tree roots. We had dug about 50 whole sample bottles, enough bricks to build a small building and enough pieces of broken amber glass to assemble at least 150 examples of the larger size Hermanus bottle, but no whole ones.

George complained “that it didn't look good,” but he felt we still hadn't dug the “pocket” out completely, and that maybe in a little further. “Come on Jim, let's give it one more try.”

Another foot or so revealed what might have been the remains of part of a tin roof, or a least what was left of it. It was of some size and fairly intact, we had to remove more of the side of the bank to get it out. It was getting late when we finally removed the metal obstacle. Underneath was several charred wooden beams with more pieces of Hermanus bottles in-between. But wait, where they only pieces? I slowly removed the remaining dirt, and then one-by-one removed 12 fully intact Hermanus Germany's Infallible Dyspepsia Cure bottles! The only intact large size bottles in the entire dig were protected over the years by the tin roof of the building that once housed all the bottles. A few more minutes of digging revealed nothing more, we found the original side of the canal, the great Hermanus dig was over.

But not all stories end with the dig - read on as the saga of the Hermanus Germany's Infallible Dyspepsia Cure bottles continues.

My story begins in July 1976. We were on a trip to California, intent on getting back to St. Louis in time for the National Bottle Show in St. Louis. We stopped in Texas, and spent the evening with Reverend Bill Agee, of the Cure Books fame and his family. While there he unwittingly caused me to sin by telling me that he had just ordered a Hermanus Germany's Infallible Dyspepsia Cure. Of course, I started coveting right on the spot, and you know that coveting is a Thou Shall Not. Except for seeing it listed in his book, I had never seen or even talked to anyone who had seen a Hermnaus Cure.

When we reached St. Louis and got into the show, we began our rounds on the tables. Suddenly, a Hermanus Cure seemed to reach out and grab me. It was on the table of, who else. Jim Hagenbuch. After much tactful diplomacy a lot of money an couple of trade bottles, it was mind, all mine. You can imagine my feelings when I got back to Florida and found a letter from Jim offering the bottle to me for less than I got it for. No worry, I got it back on our next deal. At any rate, the Hermanus Cure became a showpiece in my collection where it still sits today.

About July 1977, my neighbor brought a visiting cousin named Heintz Guenther Brammertz over to see the museum, as he called our house. Turns outs Higu was from Essen W. Germany, and as he looked at my collections, he said “Where did you get the Hermann bottle.” He was looking at the Hermanus Cure with the picture of the Roman (I thought) Soldier on it. He then told me that the soldier was Hermann or Hermanus or before that Arminius. He was the patron savior of Germany, who defeated the Roman Legions in the battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D. Three legions of Roman soldiers under the command of Quintilius Varus were destroyed or routed by Arminius and his forces which were a single tribe. In 15 A.D. he again beat off a full scale attack of Romans under Germanicus Caeser. The concept of Arminius as a full scale hero of Germany reached a climax in the mid 19th century. In 1838 a statute was started on the site of Groten-Castle in the Teutoburg Forest, it was completed in 1875 and is still a tourist attraction today. It stands 170 feet all and can be entered much the same as the Statue of Liberty. My German friend was nice enough to send information back as to the exact location of the HERMANNSTRABE in the area of DETMOLD, GERMANY.

Now that I had the information on Hermanus and the bottle, I needed more information. the bottle is embossed on three sides as follow: HERMANUS/GERMANY'S INFALLIABLE/DYSPEPIA CURE//PIC OF HERMANUS WITH RAISED SWORD//PREP FOR THE U.S. BY THE/L&N ADLER MED.CO/READING PA. I immediately sent a letter to the Reading Library and was lucky on my first try. There was no mention whatsoever as to a L&N Adler Med. Co., however, L&N Adler were listed in the city directories beginning in 1892 as CLOTHIERS. The L stands for Louis and the N for Nathan. They were located at 517 Penn Ave. In 1899 the firm became Adler Bros. Clothiers and Gents Furnishers and was located at 519 and 521 Penn Ave. After 1902 there is no further mention of Nathan. The firm became Adler Bros. (Louis Adler) Clothiers and Gent Furnishers. In 1907, a new firm of P.G. Hildebrand and Louis Adler Lead Tobacco was informed at 538 Franklin St. There is no further mention of Bros. after this. From 1908 until 1912 it is listed as Adler Leaf Tobacco Company. In 1912 the last entry reads Alder, Louis (Sadie) Adler Leaf Tobacco Company, 1202 Franklin St. (his home address).

So...the mystery has not been solved. The looks and physical make up of the bottle would put it at about the correct time frame for the 1892 to 1899 dates that both Nathan and Louis were in business together, But, what happened to the Adler Med. Co??? Did they sell the medicine from their clothing store? I am inclined to believe that it was either an ill fated venture that never got off the ground, or that they did indeed sell their cure from the clothing store. In those days many people had their hands into more than one business.

Medicine makers of the day used tricky names and often used pictures to help sell their concoctions. Since Adler is a name of German derivation and many Germans were coming into the U.S.around that time. I believe that the brothers Adler reached back into German History and remembered Hermanus. The name and picture together do look good on the bottle. Then, if they followed in form, they laced their concoction with alcohol or some narcotic and sold it to the public. It very probably did nothing to affect a cure as was usually the case. It did leave a very desirable CURE BOTTLE for the cure and medicine collectors. The large size is considered rare, while the small size (sample without the picture) is considered common.

If it hadn't been for a neighbor's cousin visiting from Germany, we may have never found out the meaning of the picture on HERMANUS GERMANY'S INFALLIBLE DYSPEPSIA CURE.....

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